Pineapple — Cream Cheese Bread Pudding — The Sunday Warmth That Holds Everything Together

Blog readership growing, invited to write guest column for Charleston food magazine, food writing career emerging. The week was the life. The life was the cooking. The cooking was the love. And the love was the week, and the week was one of the weeks that stack together to become the years, and the years become the life, and the life is the woman at the stove who cooks and writes and loves and does not stop.

I made she-crab soup on Sunday — the anchor, the constant, the practice. The soup was perfect. The perfection was the practice. And the practice continues, one Sunday at a time, one bowl at a time, one life at a time, the woman stirring, the roux thickening, the kitchen warm, the family fed, the love alive.

The soup anchors Sunday, but the meal doesn’t end there — and on a week like this one, when the writing career felt real and the kitchen felt like the truest place I know, I wanted something warm and sweet to close it out. This pineapple and cream cheese bread pudding is the kind of dessert that asks nothing of you except presence: you stir, you wait, you serve, and the kitchen stays warm a little longer. That felt exactly right.

Pineapple & Cream Cheese Bread Pudding

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 loaf (about 12 oz) day-old French bread, cubed
• 1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple, undrained
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened and cubed
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter or nonstick spray and set aside.
2. Layer the bread and pineapple. Spread the cubed bread evenly in the prepared baking dish. Pour the crushed pineapple with its juice evenly over the bread, then scatter the cubed cream cheese throughout.
3. Make the custard. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, melted butter, and salt until smooth and fully combined.
4. Soak the bread. Pour the custard mixture evenly over the bread, pineapple, and cream cheese. Press down gently with a spatula so all the bread absorbs the custard. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
5. Bake. Bake uncovered for 40–45 minutes, until the top is golden and the center is just set. A knife inserted in the center should come out mostly clean.
6. Rest and serve. Let the pudding rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm, as-is or with a drizzle of caramel sauce or a dollop of whipped cream.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 410 | Protein: 10g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 54g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 340mg